mower - riding or self propelled?

I think the ideal scenario would be a rider set up for racing and the occasional yard-pull duty, and a push mower for mowin' grass.

Yep, I said duty.

blaze86vic wrote: Riding mower all the way, anything else is a waste of you life. If you really want a push more, don't get a self propelled. My experience is that the drive system always has a lot of drag when you aren't using it, and they need more maintenance than riding mowers do. And the reason I bring the drag while not in use up, is that they are NEVER fast enough. I don't like spending an hour mowing <1 acre.....LAME!!

Wow! I could have typed that!

Self-propelled walk behind mowers suck! The drive mechanism is generally made from plastic gears, and they break. They're heavy, and slow.

I mow our acre-and-a-half with a John Deere L100 basic lawn tractor. I've had it seven years now, and it's been fine. My trim mower is a 22" Craftsman push mower--nice and light.

The OP is on what I would consider the "riding mower threshhold" at .70 acre. Any bigger, he'd obviously go with a rider, any smaller, he should push it.

I have just under 0.5 acre and use a riding mower (honda). I ain't going back to a push mower unless I can get one without the stupid kill switch handle. Last push mower I bought (Jacobson) was the last one without that feature and it was a hold over. I loved it but wore it out. Then i got Crohn's and am too damned tired to use a push mower. Funny thing is that is when I started getting fat. Hummm.

spitfirebill wrote: I have just under 0.5 acre and use a riding mower (honda). I ain't going back to a push mower unless I can get one without the stupid kill switch handle. Last push mower I bought (Jacobson) was the last one without that feature and it was a hold over. I loved it but wore it out. Then i got Crohn's and am too damned tired to use a push mower. Funny thing is that is when I started getting fat. Hummm.

I've never been one to defeat safety features. Frankly, with kids around, if I have to take my hands off the mower, I'd prefer that it stop. But if it bothers you, just ziptie the safety bar to the handle. No biggie!

My yard isn't that big but I push mine. I bought the cheapest lightest mower WalMart sells. I think is was around $100. It was to replace a $400 Lawn Boy self propelled. The Lawn Boy was always broken and was a PITA to start. The cheapo starts on the first pull and with out all the extra crap on it never breaks. It's three years old and other than the air filter stopping up often I haven't even added oil to it yet. When it does puke unless it's something simple it will go to the edge of the road and I'll go get another one just like it.

For the guy that hates safety handles, that's what they make zip ties for.

i use my 42in cut Troybilt 8yrs and still going strong. I have 1/2acre . My neighbor has a push mower. By the time I'm done with my whole yard he's barely finished half of his. In 90+deg heat who cares about keeping in shape. I'll take the a/c anytime

JFX001 wrote:

TJ wrote: I only care the little I do about the yard because I don't want to be "that guy" that the rest of the neighborhood despises.

It's not so much that I aim to be "that guy", but my one neighbors yard is atrocious.I have a 3:1 ratio with them, I mow 3 times to their one...and I mow once a week.Their son, "Lumpy" will mow, pick up the trash/papers, and throw it back where he has just cleared the path. It took them over a year to put up a privacy fence, and they don't take care of the weeds on this side (currently 2'-3' feet high). They get the family together once a year to clean out the weeds in the front flower beds. We live on a busy street, no houses in front, so people do look....and notice. Plus, My Lovely Wife is a teacher, and she has bunches of students and parents that drive by. I just want it to look nice. *On a side note, I used the Flymo's when I worked on a golf course some twenty-odd years ago, worked well on the areas close to the ponds/water.

I don't let mine get nearly that bad, but I certainly don't obsess over it and try to do as little yard work as possible.

m4ff3w wrote:

914Driver wrote: No cross hatch, no wheel marks, no ruts, no friction.

Did they ever sell them in the USA?

husqavarna still sells those new

Someone said they wanted to pave their yard and paint it green. I always wanted Astroturf.

However, I've since decided the ultimate yard is the one I will have when I retire to a warmer climate:

1988RedT2 wrote:

spitfirebill wrote: I have just under 0.5 acre and use a riding mower (honda). I ain't going back to a push mower unless I can get one without the stupid kill switch handle. Last push mower I bought (Jacobson) was the last one without that feature and it was a hold over. I loved it but wore it out. Then i got Crohn's and am too damned tired to use a push mower. Funny thing is that is when I started getting fat. Hummm.

I've never been one to defeat safety features. Frankly, with kids around, if I have to take my hands off the mower, I'd prefer that it stop. But if it bothers you, just ziptie the safety bar to the handle. No biggie!

Then you're going to need a lot of zip ties. The safety handle is the kill switch. My old mower had the throttle that had a kill setting on it. All the way done shut the engine off.

I have been using riders since I was 14yo to mow not only my parents yard but most of the other yards in the subdivision. I paid for many of early toys with the proceeds. Modern riders are pretty good imo. You do get what you pay for however. I currently use a Scott's that was made by J Deere. My only complaint is that many of the parts have to be purchased from the local dealer but I have found that Farmer's Supply has many of the basic parts. A lawnmower is like a non-miata sports car in that it needs lots of maintenance and most operators are simply not up to do the maintenance. A bath after each use goes a long way for a long life span. I use old race oil in the motor and just change the oil and filters on annual basis. Keeping the mower deck clean helps with belt life too.
I have 1.5 acres and can mow it in approx 45 minutes with a 48in deck. I have learned that I cant make tight turns around trees and other landscaping without chopping up the yard. YMMV

spitfirebill wrote: Then you're going to need a lot of zip ties. The safety handle is the kill switch. My old mower had the throttle that had a kill setting on it. All the way done shut the engine off.

Oh, c'mon! You can slide the ziptie around and down below the pivot point to release the safety bar and kill the engine--then just slip it back up for next time. Or you can ground out the spark plug with a screwdriver. Or you can put a ziptie on the spark plug wire and yank it off to kill the engine. Or you can calculate the exact amount of fuel required to mow your lawn and measure and add exactly that much fuel to the tank each time you mow. Or you can leave one patch of your lawn really crazy tall, and when you're done mowing you can push it into the tall stuff and stall it out. I suspect that there may be other solutions.

Push mowers have no cup holders. I cut 3/4 of an acre. It takes about 50 minutes of relaxing, me time. Very therapeutic. A used rider(garden tractor) will run $300-$400. A good self-propelled mower starts around $300.I don't need or want the extra "exercise".I use a cheapie MTD Yardman w/42" cut. It will cut up & down, across, horizontally, diagonally,or even in circles. Not a problem in eight years, and no ruts in the yard

914Driver wrote: No cross hatch, no wheel marks, no ruts, no friction.

This might be the coolest thing I've seen all week.

Not only is it a mower that freakin' HOVERS, it would actually be quite useful for getting around all the grasses 'n shrubs 'n junk we put in this year. Oh man...